Excerpts from sj-r.com:

Brandon Blough has been appointed as the new Springfield fire chief. Three candidates from within the department were interviewed for the position. 

Blough was a member of the senior command staff, serving as deputy division chief of operations. He was promoted to the position in 2018. Prior to that he was a captain, driver engineer, and firefighter. He was also a member of the dive team. He currently sits on the board of directors of the Illinois Public Pension Fund Association, a group that represents the more than 600 police and fire pension funds in Illinois. He served on the Springfield Firefighters’ Pension Board from 2009 to 2018, first as a trustee and later president. Prior to joining the SFD, Blough was a legal sergeant with the Illinois Army National Guard from 1989 to 1995.

The city’s fire pension systems is currently about 42% funded. Nearly $270 million in additional funds will be needed above what the city is expected to collect in property tax revenue in order to meet the state law requiring that local pension systems be 90 percent funded by 2040, according to a city presentation from 2019. The city’s annual contribution to its fire and police pension systems has exceeded the property tax levy for the past several years.

Blough will be tasked with maintaining the department’s Class 1 rating, which it regained in 2018 after being downgraded in 2003. The ratings system looks at a city’s fire suppression capabilities by grading the fire department, the emergency communications system, the city’s water supply and efforts toward community risk reduction.

His annual salary as chief will be $137,000.

Blough’s father, William “Billy” Blough, was on the fire department from 1972 to 1999. He retired as a driver-engineer.

Fire Marshal Ed Canny, a 23-year department veteran who is also the chief of the department’s fire safety division, will continue to be the point person for the COVID-19 response.